November housing construction up 8.9 percent

[babylonsister]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091216/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_housing_starts


November housing construction up 8.9 percent


By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer – 52 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Construction of new homes, helped by better weather, rebounded in November following a setback in the previous month.

The gain is a hopeful sign that the housing recovery is continuing, a development viewed as critical to lifting the overall economy out of recession.

The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments rose 8.9 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 574,000 units. The gain represented strength in all areas of the country although the increase was slightly lower than economists had expected.

Applications for new building permits were also up, rising 6 percent to an annual rate of 584,000 units, a stronger showing than economists predicted.

[dysfunctional press]

1. considering all the existing housing currently available and on the market...

there has to be another reason besides overall demand.

[Zynx]

11. There's always a certain level of demand for new housing.

Currently, we are barely above the annual housing stock destruction rate which is between 300,000 and 400,000. When you are down 75% from the peak, large gains are pretty easy. On an absolute scale these are depression-like numbers out of the housing industry.

[dysfunctional press]

12. there are a LOT of brand new houses already sitting vacant. at least around here..

just like a lot of the ones now being built will probably be as well.

[Zynx]

13. Nationally new home inventories relative to sales are not that high.

They were catastrophically high about six months ago, but they are down quite a bit from there.

[ixion]

2. while that's great for construction companies, it just doesn't make sense

there is a massive glut of available housing on the market, and yet more houses are being built.

It's probably cheaper now because there's not so much building going on, and I imagine people are concerned about drywall from China, so I'm not saying there aren't good reasons to want to build a house, but it just seems that ultimately it makes things worse, because that massive glut of empty houses on the market remains.

I guess it just seems like a waste.

We don't recycle houses, either. We demolish them and send otherwise decent building material to the landfill, which is a waste of resources.

Will we ever learn?

[babylonsister]

4. I wonder if they build them with the expectation they won't sell. And

think of all the people who are working doing the building.

[ixion]

6. yeah, I'm glad for people that are getting work from it...

and I'm all for us making things here -- anything, with the exception of more weaponry.

It's just hard to ignore the wasted resources in the wake.

[Zynx]

10. Actually, the home inventories have come down a lot. They're not yet low, but

they're a lot lower than they were, particularly among new houses. At a normal annual sales rate of new houses, the existing inventory would turn over nearly 4x. We would only have a 3 month supply.

[AllentownJake]

3. LOL

There is an inventory problem and they are building again.

:rofl:

[notesdev]

5. Who can possibly be buying?

Months of supply keeps heading upwards, and at no small rate. Economy swooning, unemployment soaring... to whom do they think they can sell yet more new housing units?

My experience in doing business is that almost nobody has any money these days, everyone is using it to pay off debts, or to survive, if they have any at all.

Somehow they need to find creditworthy borrowers willing to buy into a declining market in order to justify building more units.

Good luck with that, fellas! (You'll need it!)

[madokie]

9. The houses I've seen go up around here have been in the 60 plus price range

Nothing like what was being built a few years ago

[xiamiam]

7. bs..foreclosures are at record high levels NOW..tons of inventory being held by the banks

houses sitting empty everywhere..and values being lowered daily.....short sales and foreclosures are the deals right now...contractors and builders in my area are going under..the bottom is nowhere in sight

[madokie]

8. Thats great news

but a few years ago undocumented workers pretty much took over the construction of houses around here so I wonder who is getting the jobs, Americans or undocumented workers?

riddle me that, someone